Tag Archives: life

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jim elliotWhat the World Needs Now …

 

Abruptly, Jesus spoke to those wishing to follow Him, “If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life.”  (Mark 8:35)

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep for that which he cannot lose.” Jim Eliot had penned in his journal October 28, 1949.  January 8, 1956 Jim Eliot and four other missionaries were killed by Auca Indians in Ecuador.  They had flown over the Auca village for months dropping gifts to win their hearts so that they might share the good news of Christ with them.

“You fellows are crazy to waste all that good stuff on the Aucas.  They will be just as mean as before,” they were told by others.  The news of this tragedy “went viral”.  It was an unspeakably cruel act.

Two years later Elizabeth Eliot, Jim’s widow, and their three year old daughter, Valerie, were living in a little house with no floor, walls or furniture in the village with her husband’s murderers in order to bring the good news of Jesus Christ to them!   In 1966 two of those Indians, Gikita Komi and Yaeti Kimo, who had participated in the murder of these five men, having become Christians, traveled to Berlin, Germany to participate in the World Congress on Evangelism.

Today our world is rampant with violence, hatred, murder and every conceivable wrong.  During the week before Easter we think about the hatred of those who cried out “Crucify Him!” They were calling for the same crime which killed those five missionaries.  Crowds crying for death in Jerusalem, the murder of five missionaries in Ecuador, a tree trimmer beaten unconscious last week as he tried to help a child in Detroit.  No matter how much evil or wrong there may be around us, the Light and Love which come from God are able to overcome.  There is no darkness so great that God is not greater still.  Now that is worth celebrating!

Forest Fire!

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fire flower 3Forest Fire!

Every year raging forest fires ravage thousands of acres in our western states.  There are terrible accounts of harrowing rescues and devastating, widespread destruction.  Heart broken, residents and reporters stand where luscious woodlands, loving homes and busy lives flourished.  Now blackened wastelands, smoking debris, shattered lives and broken dreams seem all that remains.

A few days ago while speaking with one of our preschool teachers we talked about a period of time in her life when, during a time of great loss, she was deeply saddened by grief.  Surprisingly, she smiled as she spoke of how life was even better than before.  We agreed that in many ways her experience was like that of a forest fire.  At first her life was characterized by floods of tears and a broken heart.  During that time it seemed like her life was over and she would never find happiness again.

In a similar way after fire has brought destruction it seems life in the woods is over.  But we know this is not true.  After some time has passed, almost without notice, life begins to return to the forest.  First rains come and begin to wash the ash away.  Then comes the warming rays of the sun bursting through where once the old growth canopy blocked it.  Fed by the sun’s power, enriched by nutrients in those ashes, new life begins where before it had no chance.  Without the competition of weeds, towering trees and hardened paths new life thrives!  In fact biologists tell us these fires are essential to healthy forests.

When loss leaves in its wake empty days, broken hearts and rivers of tears it also leaves opportunity for something new to flourish where before it never had a chance.  Now, several years past the ‘fire’ that ravaged her life that teacher agreed that good things had come to her which, without her loss, would have never had a chance.

We have no choice but to grieve when we lose something or someone special to us.  We do however have a choice of whether we allow that grief to give way to new life and opportunities or whether we live the rest of our days mired in heartache and bitterness. “In His grace there is life; weeping may be for a night, but joy comes in the morning.” (Psalm 30:5)

Plastic Bags

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Plastic Bagsplastic bags

Walking our dog after the rain had swept through I noticed, caught in the shrubs along the drainage ditch plastic shopping bags caught in their branches.  Looking more closely I realized that most of them had been there for some time, dirty, tattered, deteriorating from sun, mud, wind and rain.  They have no value.

Later in the day after paying for my purchase the sales clerk placed in another plastic bag not unlike those along the ditch back. That bag placed on the seat of my car continued to serve a purpose.  That bag contained something important and was needed until the contents were safely home.

With a new year has come the ever renewed resolution to take better care of our bodies.  In some ways our bodies are like those plastic bags.  Their real value is not in the bag but in what they contain.  Our bodies are NOT us.  Our bodies DO serve the purpose of containing “us”, holding us, keeping us alive in this world and able to do what we were put here to do.

Sooner or later, these bodies fulfill their responsibility and are set aside.  We call this death, passing away, or just “passing”.  We may spend a moment looking at them but then they begin the same journey as those abandoned bags along the bank.

Resolutions to work on our bodies are important.  But infinitely more important is the care of our souls, the contents of “the bag”.  Feed the body.  Feed the soul.

Stumped

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Stumped

After a morning of chopping, sawing, digging, and prying it is still unmoved!

At first I thought it would be an hour long project. That was before I dug down and looked at what was below the surface.

Let me back up. I cut that tree down over a year ago to make way for planting grapes, blackberries and blueberries. Since then I have repeatedly cut away new growth emerging from an ugly stump barely six inches across. So I decided I would get rid of the thing. How hard could that be?

Before I cut it down this tree did not stand out as different from the others. But on the morning I decided to get rid of its stump I discovered a real difference in this tree just below the surface where no eye had seen. Beneath the surface there were huge roots, nearly as big in diameter as the stump itself stretching in every direction. After cutting each one (with considerable effort) it still would not budge! Obviously, deeper still there are roots holding it in place, tenaciously to the ground in which it once emerged as a tender, young sapling.

This week we learned of yet another mass shooting at a Naval yard in Washington. Other weeks we are faced with healthcare problems or the threat of government shutdowns and war, or a recessionary economy. We struggle with broken homes, wayward children, or a shocking diagnosis from the doctor. The list goes on. How can we be prepared for such a world as this? These problems seem intractable because there is more to them than meets the eye.

I believe the answer is in that tree stump. The word “stumped”, meaning there seems to be no easy solution to a problem, emerged during the days of building our national rail system. As the tracks expanded great trees were encountered. There was no way around removing the stumps but that was easier said than done. The setting of the sun on many days left the workers “stumped” with how to remove them.

Jesus came not as a general, a president or a philanthropist because God knew the solution to a troubled world could not be found in war, politics or finances. Our world is “stumped” because we have not learned to look beneath the surface. When we allow God to probe our hearts and reveal to us our broken human nature which is beneath all our problems we are taking the first steps. Only the God who made us, and who loves us can root out all that keeps our lives and our world broken.